Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (Xinnian) is a lunar festival on the Chinese lunar calendar, falling between January’s end and early February. This most important Chinese holiday used to continue for fifteen days until Lantern Festival. It begins with a feast on New Year’s Eve; children and elders gather to see the old year out and eat Buddha’s Delight, a dish of eight vegetables wishing for a lucky year. They also enjoy baozi, dumplings made by the hundreds before New Year’s Day. Some only eat vegetable foods this night, their dumplings filled with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and cellophane noodles; others have shrimp, pork, and vegetables in their dough wrappers. Various fillings in glutinous rice balls are served in soup. And New Year Cakes made with sweet rice are eaten then and all the holiday. A whole fish may be served, symbolizing prosperity; meat dishes rarely are.